Category: Blog Articles

Leapfrog Rapid Response: Interventions to Improve Your Healthcare Ratings

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In today’s digital healthcare age, ensuring the quality of patient care should go hand-in-hand with robust and efficient IT systems. ReMedi was recently approached by a prominent healthcare system to take a deep dive into their lagging Leapfrog survey results and was asked to outline a plan for rapid remediation. This article delves into the intricate connection between nursing documentation, hospital IT, and quality teams.

Background

The healthcare provider in focus is no small player; it’s a bustling 500-bed inpatient facility that not only boasts of a Level I trauma center but also caters to an impressive 1.3 million patients annually. Despite having a respectable CMS star rating of 4 in 2021, there lay a glaring issue – a Leapfrog score of (D) for two successive years.

Understanding the Problem

The Leapfrog Group plays a pivotal role in elevating the standards of the healthcare industry by assessing safety and quality. What’s intriguing is that a staggering 85% of the metrics they scrutinize find their roots in nursing documentation. The Leapfrog metrics echo similar measures CMS evaluates for quality and readmissions, which in turn are intertwined with the hospital reimbursement rates. Ultimately, seamless nursing documentation not only underscores quality patient care but also paves the way for better public recognition and potential enhancement in reimbursement rates.

Objective

Our mission was clear – dissect the existing survey, pinpoint areas ripe for improvement, and collaborate closely with the hospital informatics team to devise and rapidly implement a robust action plan.

Approach

Spanning eight weeks, the project kicked off with a 2-week immersion by a seasoned Clinical Informatics RN from ReMedi’s brigade. The agenda? Comprehensive on-site interaction with nursing leaders and frontline nursing staff to get a pulse of the current EMR functionality, the prevailing documentation practices, and a deep dive into workflows affecting the data crucial for both Leapfrog and CMS.

Based on the Leapfrog report’s findings, interviews were strategized, ensuring those areas lagging were attended to with priority. Once insights from the clinical team were gleaned, the next leg involved aligning with the IT team to further pinpoint avenues to enrich EMR functionality, thereby enhancing nursing documentation.

Roll Out

Having gathered a well-rounded perspective, ReMedi’s next stride was to craft a meticulous action plan to facilitate necessary system enhancements. Collaborating with IT governance councils, nursing practice councils, and the hospital’s Quality team was paramount. With the green light on the changes, our focus shifted to the development of comprehensive education and training modules to streamline the novel workflows. During the rollout phase, lasting two weeks, ReMedi fortified its presence on the ground, ensuring close collaboration with nursing units and consistent backing for the hospital leadership.

Conclusion

In the vast and ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, the marriage between quality patient care and sophisticated IT systems is indispensable. ReMedi’s journey with this healthcare system underscores the profound impact of an optimized IT system on patient care quality, public perception, and financial outcomes. We remain committed to bridging the gap between technology and care, ensuring healthcare providers are always a leap ahead in their service delivery.

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If you feel your organization could benefit from an assessment, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us directly or send a message to info@remedihs.com.

Epic User Settings Deep Dive

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An In-depth View of Customizing Epic User Settings for Physicians

Epic provides patients, clinicians, and their care teams with numerous possibilities to deliver outstanding patient experiences. Specifically, when discussing the Personalization of Epic, the system enables clinicians to customize their experience to match the demands of their unique speciality.

Why User Settings are Important for New and Experienced Epic Users

Physicians and clinicians are already overwhelmed with the number of features to learn and the need to maintain patient volumes around the time of Go-Live and post-implementation. With proper training and customization of their Epic User Settings, physicians can have better control and discretion over personalizing their Epic accounts according to their needs and way of working with their patients and staff.

Personalizing the Epic User Settings for Physicians and Clinicians

Fundamentally, we believe the success of Epic is based largely on personalization. Over one-third of all physicians believe that personalization is the most important factor in clinical electronic medical records’ effectiveness.

To date, prominent providers have established specialty-specific templates and workflows for their health systems, but each provider can go a step further and “personalize” their user settings and learn advanced workflows that help them use the system more efficiently. When hospitals offer providers the ability to personalize Epic, it leads to more efficient workflows, better patient care, positive outcomes for patients, and better metrics for hospitals. 

Preparing for Epic Go-Live

Through customization lab sessions and peer-to-peer training, ReMedi’s Epic Physician Team dedicates itself to reducing physician stress, minimizing burnout, and increasing efficiency. Our ReMedi Team consists of board certified and Epic certified MDs that have a deep understanding of clinical and IT environments. The peer-to-peer training model that ReMedi offers hospitals leads to high satisfaction for training physician end-users on Epic. 

Working with ReMedi physicians, healthcare providers and clinicians can learn how to set up and implement Epic SmartPhrases and Macros, templates, order sets, and preference lists to simplify order and note input in personalization labs. ReMedi Physicians assist doctors in creating a toolkit for the most common workflows, allowing clinicians to focus on fine-tuning personalization to meet workflow-specific requirements. Personalization labs, Epic champions, and concierge services also help providers improve their competency and efficiency. 

Improving Physician Efficiency and Organizational Performance

Giving providers one on one training with peers further establishes the health system’s commitment to improving the clinical setting. Training leads to optimizing the way that providers use Epic; hands on training creates the opportunity to build better habits as well as learn advanced workflows. As providers and clinicians learn more about Epic, they develop better control of their workflows, optimizing and boosting their charting and ordering tasks.

The Basics of an Epic User Settings Lab

For new Epic users, it is important to first learn how to create notes and create orders.

Note Creation Inside of Epic

The note is the central point of all patient data, and Epic offers efficiencies within its note functionality that helps doctors prepare comprehensive notes faster and easier. Within the context of creating notes, it’s important to first recognize the specialty of the physician as this will influence the customization of the note. Specifically, using SmartLinks inside of note templates, ReMedi physicians help physicians tailor their note templates so that the notes automatically pre-populate with specific information that allows doctors to focus more on what matters and less on time consuming documentation measures. 

The reason why physicians mastering note writing in Epic is so important is because it leads to better documentation. Moreover, it creates a better story about the patient, and enables clinicians to provide better care and more value to the patient over the long term.  Finally, better documentation results in higher operational efficiency for health systems at large, which when implemented effectively across the board can make significant impact to the way in which healthcare is successfully delivered. 

Learning the Ins and Outs of Orders in Epic

Orders are foundational to getting anything done inside of the clinical setting. Labs, immunizations, transfers, it all begins with an order whether a clinician is providing care in the inpatient or outpatient settings. Order creation is catalyzed by the clinician’s preference list in Epic, so ReMedi physicians generally teach physicians how to update and manage their preference lists to help streamline their workflows. Within preference lists, ReMedi trains physicians on creating favorites, sharing lists, and utilizing order sets based on the specialty of the doctor. 

It is a best practice for organizations to create order sets for different specialties. They are available for all physicians to use to expedite placing orders. Clinicians can personalize these order sets and save them as their own version.

Notably, SmartPhrases and order preferences are the basic benchmarks per Epic. Moreover, ReMedi Physicians go above and beyond when training doctors on Epic by teaching the following tactics:

  • Diving Deeper Into the Why – Our approach is to train doctors to fish instead of simply feeding them with the answers to problems in Epic. Rather than merely providing information, we ensure that providers understand how to use the new EHR effectively.
  • Providing Insight and “Eyebrow Raisers” – ReMedi physicians confront the most difficult challenges and concerns head-on. Furthermore, they provide insight, such that upon “discovering something, this leads to this.”
  • Helping with Navigating – We ensure that the Epic build is up to date and that a clear communication channel is open between our Physician Executives and providers. Furthermore, we aid clinicians in retrieving and entering data, relieving them of the stress of dealing with the technological part of the service.

Undoubtedly, Epic is getting better and better, making work significantly easier for clinicians.

Case Example: ReMedi’s Advanced User Settings Approach for UT Health

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) recently contracted ReMedi Health Solutions to streamline the implementation of Epic Systems for its 2,000 doctors.

The Epic Implementation process relies largely on having the proper people guiding an organization’s team to ensure success. Moreover, ReMedi acknowledges that Epic implementation is not one size fits all. ReMedi has proven that using physicians to undertake Epic personalization provides clinicians and end-users with an advantage. In fact, as part of a recent partnership with UTHealth, ReMedi’s physicians were able to train and support UTHealth’s practitioners before the transition to Epic. 

At UTHealth, ReMedi provided specialty-specific workflows to over 18 specialities at the academic healthcare institution. Before going into personalization, ReMedi takes the time to understand the clinician’s workflow first. ReMedi believes that however useful Epic can be, it will remain futile if workflows do not match the process of teaching clinicians how to apply them. After getting a good grasp on their workflow, only then will ReMedi proceed with personalizing Epic and updating User Settings.

More specifically, below is ReMedi’s Clinically-Driven approach to personalizing Epic user settings for physicians:

  • Create at least one note template with the SmartPhrases tool
  • Create at least one version of an Order set
  • Create at least one preference list of orders
  • Create at least one Haiku Charges preference list
  • Create at least one QuickAction
  • Create at least one version of a SmartSet
  • Discuss How to setup SmartTools

Conclusion

Epic holds great promise as the future of EHR. But, no matter how great the potential Epic has in streamlining healthcare processes, it would remain stagnant if the EHR training is inadequate and physicians do not receive training from their peers with Epic experience. With ReMedi’s expertise, healthcare providers can be sure of a seamless shift towards the world’s leading modern EHR, Epic Systems.

To connect with our team of physician executives about Epic Systems and EHR, email us at info@remedihs.com.

This Mission is Possible: Achieving Better Data in Healthcare

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At ReMedi, we frequently support health systems going through transitions at various stages of the EHR life cycle. Along the way, we almost inevitably uncover challenges surrounding the quality of the patient data transferred to the new and existing EHR. 

Eventually, that information must be reconciled in the new system with all of the disparate sources, including legacy system(s), scanned documents, continuum of care documents (CCDs), and various databases (archives, HIEs, pharmacy databases, state registries, etc.). It’s just a question of when this happens and who does the work. 

Healthcare organizations have two options for this. Clinicians can spend more time on each patient chart before, during, or after the clinic visit. Or, the organization can leverage an outsourced clinical data team to augment the abstraction efforts of the internal clinical staff. 

For an even more in-depth view into our approach to chart abstraction, download our comprehensive whitepaper: How A Clinically Driven Chart Abstraction Process Improves the Continuum of Care.

Clinicians vs. Abstractors: Who should do it?

It takes about 20 minutes or more to sift through all of the disparate data sources to reconstruct an accurate patient chart in a new EHR. While the idea of having access to CCD data appears to be helpful, without referencing the legacy system simultaneously to reconcile it, the data itself is not useful. It’s a different story when a clinician looks under the hood at what sort of data gets transferred from the chart. There’s a misconception about data transfer and the format in which information is migrated to the new EHR. When a clinician looks at a new chart after data transfer, it is difficult to determine what patient information is accurate and useful. 

The resulting patient chart is often difficult to follow because it’s convoluted, confusing, and inaccurate, containing mix-and-match information from multiple systems. It’s like a fire hose sprayed data into the chart without any clear direction or control. 

Clinicians can’t determine what information is the most recent or accurate—or they’re missing data altogether. This can dramatically increase costs from organizational inefficiencies, lower the quality of patient outcomes, and create a dangerous situation for patient safety. 

Ultimately, we find that a hybrid approach is optimal, whereby a health system partners with a clinical data team and collaborates to solve the data quality issues within the EHR. This approach relieves the majority of the work from clinicians and lets them focus on highly complex issues that require more time to analyze and solve. Not only does the hybrid model relieve burden and reduce clinician burnout, but it also ensures the highest quality data in the EHR.

What a successful abstraction process looks like

While data science is a field dominated by mathematics, statistics, and computer science, healthcare data requires additional clinical knowledge and close attention to detail. Health systems must leverage clinical oversight on each deployed resource to serve as a valuable extension of their organizations.

The work requires a significant amount of time and effort. But it’s worth the investment. Hindered care delivery and operational inefficiencies are simply not an option. 

When done correctly, successful chart abstractions give clinicians a clean slate with accurate data for delivering top-quality care right away. They have more time to improve the patient experience and spend less time making sense of the EHR. 

ReMedi’s approach to chart abstraction is to first train our clinical data team. They learn to perform a step-by-step process that considers all the important elements from previous records to ensure patient safety and meet organizational needs. 

For example, medications are reconciled against the active medication list, leveraging data from various systems. This includes comparing order dates, prescriptions, discontinued and suspended medications, and other notes documented by clinicians. 

When our team builds its strategy for reconciling an organization’s patient data, we develop a gold standard for data governance and how to approach patient information. This trickles down to clinicians making future additions to the charts and leading them to view the EHR as a valuable tool to help provide optimal care. 

When it’s time to begin chart abstractions, we begin by developing a step-by-step process to check and reconcile all data sources to ensure we don’t miss any pertinent patient information. We see lots of complex issues with patient records during this stage of data migration. While working through the challenges, we make sure each patient chart supports clinical decision-making from the very first time a provider visits with a patient after the transition. 

The biggest issue we’ve seen occurs when clinicians don’t realize what the patient charts look like after migration until the new system is live. Their needs are not often given enough attention during the transition process. And that’s a problem. 

Health systems must prioritize data as a vital tool for clinician satisfaction. They must consider the clinician experience at every stage of the EHR transition. This will help improve their adoption, job satisfaction, and the overall quality of new data added later on.

A quick note on the potential for automation

Through our work over the years, we’ve discovered the potential for machine learning to aid our process. By pairing our team’s clinical knowledge with the right artificial intelligence model, our goal is to elevate the industry standards for the speed and accuracy of chart abstraction. 

Organizations can make significant strides toward these goals through machine learning and AI-powered automation. For instance, computers could take active medication data, reconcile it, place it in chronological order, remove duplicates, clean up and present it to the clinical staff for review.

This is the future of chart abstraction, and at ReMedi, we are actively working to make it a reality.

Overall, we’re optimistic about the future of health data. As health systems continue to become data rich and accumulate vast amounts of information, health IT companies must create solutions that automate and optimize the clinical process. 

Our big and audacious goal

At ReMedi, it’s our goal to make the EHR the single source of truth for clinicians. We are focused on reducing clinician burnout, optimizing chart abstraction, and educating health systems on best practices for documentation and data governance.

Download the in-depth whitepaper for more information on our approach to chart abstraction, and connect with ReMedi to talk more about data quality in the EHR. 

This article was originally featured on Healthcare IT Today and was written by Sarah Bavar, RN, BSN, Director at ReMedi Health Solutions.

About Sarah Bavar, RN, BSN

Sarah is a Registered Nurse, turned clinical informatics professional who leverages her time in the clinical setting to improve data quality within health systems. Using her extensive clinical experience, Sarah is dedicated to improving patient care by enhancing the quality of patient data for clinicians and providers. Sarah collaborates with several teams at ReMedi, including leadership, data migration, chronic care management, and health policy. Sarah’s leadership and direction as a nurse play an integral role in improving the adoption of the EHR for clinicians.

How a Clinically-led EHR Migration Can Make Data Abstraction a Non-invasive Process

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Implementing a new EHR is an increasingly difficult process for healthcare institutions. Adding to it is another hurdle of migrating data and records from an old EHR system to a new one like Cerner, Epic, or others. It becomes incredibly difficult and time-consuming to filter, check, and transfer data from traditional medical record keeping methods to a new, advanced EHR system. The problems that generally arise with migrating from an existing system stem from compatibility, duplicates, or different codes/forms. 

Successful data migration requires proper planning and expert support with healthcare IT experience to seamlessly transfer records and data. However, what is the exact cost of spending resources, time, and effort in the data migration process? 

Why Data Matters to Clinicians and Patients

Electronic Health Records and substantiating data that go along with them have steadily become a very large concept in the minds of the public; it works as a cohesive document that in a single eyeshot, disperses pertinent information and stats. Everyone can easily recognize some of the ways their data can be important, but for healthcare institutions that data can be life-changing. 

Some examples of useful and relevant EHR data include:

  • Accurate Problem Lists
  • Demographics
  • Histories
  • Allergies
  • Current Medications
  • Lab Results
  • Immunizations

There’s so much information about every single patient which is critically important to the physician serving them. Even social determinants like, “the conditions of the places where people live, learn, work, and play that affect an individual’s level of health risks,” are important when looking at the big picture of a patient’s health. Physicians are required to keep track of all this data and even more such as insurance plans and visits to other healthcare institutions.

EHRs help manage all this data and allow physicians to use this data in even more impactful ways. Analytic systems built into EHRs can help physicians see things they might normally miss or automatically push for certain tests based on the available data. Vast amounts of data can be an intimidating variable when it comes to transitioning to a new EHR system though.

EHR Migration: Moving Data Efficiently and Effectively

The most daunting task for a healthcare institution when digitizing systems is the migration of data from an old EHR system to a new system like Cerner or Epic. Some hospitals and institutions opt for a fresh start all together, foregoing data migration and not transferring all of their existing data into the new EHR system. This results in both patients and physicians losing out on significant value and insights from medical data. Naturally, medical providers lose optimal functionality of the EHR software and it becomes more expensive than migrating systems due to all of the value lost from customers.

To make this process smooth and non-disruptive to allow health institutions to operate and grow their businesses with their data strategy, ReMedi helps to plan out all of the strategic steps of EHR migration. We make sure that ability or cost don’t become limiting factors when evaluating the implementation of a new EHR system and process.

Here are just a few of the benefits of working with ReMedi to migrate data to a new EHR:

  • Eliminate the burden of switching back and forth from EHR to legacy system
  • Meet all quality guidelines and regulatory compliance
  • Find information, electronically perform tasks, and prescribe more efficiently and easier
  • Reduce errors from out-dated, missing, or duplicate data
  • Greener than traditional systems or keeping multiple systems

Another important reason for migrating data forward to a new EHR is that more healthcare institutions are exchanging data regularly for patients that visit multiple healthcare providers. This means every healthcare institution requires a reliable and compatible EHR system to facilitate exchanging data without errors that could cause detriment to the patient.

ReMedi’s team of Physicians and clinicians lead you and your organization across the EHR finish line with empathy.

There is a lot of planning and resources involved with EHR implementation and data migration. ReMedi’s leadership and EHR consultants come from a clinical background, and have experience that can help healthcare institutions better understand the opportunities that arise from an innovative approach to EHR data.

ReMedi’s core EHR team are physicians first, so they understand exactly how EHRs and data migration affect physicians directly. 

ReMedi’s approach to EHR data migration is to develop and provide strategic and supportive services to augment and assist healthcare staff based on specific project characteristics, goals, challenges that the healthcare organization faces. From timing and budget to the manpower necessary to review and abstract all records, ReMedi improves all aspects of the EHR along the way. With access to a ReMedi IT support team, institutions of all sizes are able to migrate their data promptly and support their staff during critical moments of patient care.

A critical component of data migration is filtering the medical records; deciding how to organize them for migration and ensuring older codes and forms will be properly migrated and work within the new system. This is also the best time to clean up records by scrubbing duplicate or outdated records, checking for errors, and other valuable data cleaning measures to ensure old problems are not going into the new system.

ReMedi has over 15 years of experience with developing and implementing multiple EHR systems across medical systems of all sizes. We ensure the highest accuracy and compliance when migrating EHR records. Successful data migration alone does not simply translate to overall provider growth and patient satisfaction. ReMedi helps implement ambulatory workflows and scenarios to ensure all medical services are correctly and properly supported with EHR data and processes that provide patients more value. ReMedi continues to serve its mission of impacting healthcare providers positively and helping healthcare institutions go above and beyond with their EHR strategy.

If you’d like to connect with one of our experienced EHR Physicians or EHR consultants, send us a message at info@remedihs.com.

Cerner Offers EHR Solutions to the Biggest Problem in Healthcare: Burden on Physicians

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The sheer amount of responsibilities and information the average physician has to deal with on a daily basis all too commonly leads to burnout. In an interview with EHRIntelligence.com, Esther Hsiang, MD calls this out: 

“Providers, especially primary care providers in the outpatient primary care setting, are expected to do so many different things in terms of addressing patient problems and remembering health maintenance screening, including cancer screenings and often [in] increasingly shorter and shorter visits.”

EHR software, like Cerner, is a natural step toward relieving some of the burnout physicians experience. Cerner offers solutions to the most common problems physicians deal with:

  • Automated billing, revenue cycle tracking, and analytics
  • Customized modules and forms for most specialties
  • Easily accessible patient charts even from other healthcare institutions: Cerner Powerchart
  • Integrated systems allowing a ‘big picture’ view of patients’ information
  • Simplification of paperwork and documentation

Hospitals and clinics need a robust but user-friendly EHR system to remain competitive in this digital age. According to a 2019 survey, only 53% of primary care providers in the US can exchange patient information with other specialty providers. While some poorly implemented EHRs can actually add to clinician burden, the demand for software innovations drives Cerner and other EHRs to improve their systems. The Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs were originally on Vista, but needed to upgrade their software. Cerner presented a solid pitch and won the massive implementation deal. 

ReMedi and Cerner Keep Physicians Focused on Patients, Not Paperwork

ReMedi is a physician-owned and driven IT Solutions company that helps healthcare institutions implement EHRs. As Physicians, ReMedi understands just how EHRs offer limitless value to healthcare institutions through personalized and efficient software solutions including:

  • Reduction in errors through automated processes and checking
  • Speeding up processes with pre-built, customized forms and orders
  • Immediate access to test results or specialist observations

All these quality-of-life improvements help physicians with their workflow, but they also help patients have a better experience. Automated nudges, predictive analytics, and decision support tools from an EHR, can help increase preventative screenings that clinicians might have missed. Customized screens, workflows, and charts help physicians keep track of all the relevant information with each patient. Integrated systems among an entire healthcare institute make it easier to order tests with specialists and then less time waiting for the results of those tests. Any care provider to a patient has access to all the data of that patient as well, meaning that each physician has a better understanding of each patient’s ‘big picture.’

The benefits of Cerner and EHRs don’t stop after a single visit either.

Post-Visit Care and How Cerner’s Benefits Continue Outside the Office

A good relationship requires communication, and the same is true for a doctor-patient relationship. Cerner helps build channels for communication between patients and physicians even outside of the office. With support for patient portals and apps, it can be easy for patients to keep track of their current data and procedures. Cerner also implemented a drug price transparency app that allows patients to browse and compare prices of any drug before purchasing. Cerner partnered with Change Healthcare to add Acute Case Management, ACM, tools to their EHR. This allows case managers to be equally informed of a patient’s data and ensure the right healthcare services and prices are being delivered to patients seamlessly. EHRs also help ensure that patients’ data is always correct and available when needed. Cerner owns and maintains all of its own data warehousing and storage, while other EHRs use third parties for data storage. Reliability and ease-of-use from these features help establish a sense of loyalty between patient and practitioner. 

ReMedi Provides a Physician-Focused Implementation 

Transitioning to an EHR like Cerner from more traditional record systems can be a difficult and complex process.

  •  ReMedi has physicians from all fields working to help healthcare institutions understand EHRs like Cerner from the same perspective as the physicians using the software. 
  • ReMedi works to implement EHRs in a way that does not disrupt the workflow of hospitals and clinics. 
  • Through simple but thorough steps ReMedi ensures proper implementation, efficient training, and continued support.
  •  Comprehensive training includes one-on-one, group, and continued education even after the EHR launch.
  •  ReMedi ensures physicians not only understand how Cerner works but also how to truly get the most out of the system for their specific needs.

Users will quickly see the benefits of Cerner and even be able to easily incorporate it into their established systems and procedures. Poor EHR usability or implementation can actually increase clinician burden or even cause patient harm. ReMedi Healthcare Solutions works to make sure implementation is not only successful but also a benefit to the healthcare institute. 

ReMedi and Cerner Offer Medical Innovations for the Present and the Future

Cerner Corporation’s EHR helps reduce clinician burden and offer countless benefits to patient and physician alike:

  • Automated medical billing and revenue cycle tracking
  • Simple and customized User Interfaces, order forms, modules, and more
  • Integrated data accessing, transferring, and patient portal; all stored on Cerner’s own servers
  • Cerner’s Powerchart
  • Communication channels between patient and physician, and between specialists and general care providers
  • Predictive analytics and decision support tools help to automate screening and test reminders
  • Acute Case Management tools

There are even more uses and features beyond these that ReMedi can help healthcare providers understand and implement. Cerner goes beyond just the immediate benefits of patient visits and helps establish a strong relationship between patient and practitioner. Cerner is the preferred provider of EHRs for the Department of Defense and Veterans Affairs and now even Amazon Web Services has signed with them to help provide cloud based analytics services.

The need for EHR implementation constantly increases as physician burnout becomes more and more of a problem, and ReMedi and Cerner are the obvious choices for the future. 

To speak with one of our EHR consultants about your healthcare system, send us a message at info@remedihs.com.

How the Efficient Use of Epic EHR Helps Alleviate Physician Burnout

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Doctors today are burdened by so many administrative tasks. From prescription notes and billing to patient records and order forms, these tasks can sometimes take away from the quality of care doctors want to provide to their patients. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) can help lighten this burden, but even then can cause more problems.

As Catherine Hambley, PhD, puts it: “I am hearing more physicians become completely demoralized by what [the EHR] has done to their ability to really provide the kind of personalized and quality patient care [they wish to give patients].” So then it’s not much of a mystery as to why the top 20 hospitals according to US News all use Epic for their EHR. Epic helps streamline all facets of medical administration, workflow, and patient communication.

Epic’s software offers countless innovations and solutions to common hospital tasks:

  • Pre-built custom forms and orders
  • Dedicated Modules for most specialties
  • Automated billing, revenue cycle tracking, and analytics 
  • Easily access and share records with other EHRs or other hospitals with Epic software 
  • Mobile/App connectivity and support
  • Telehealth support and integration

The demanding world of medicine today requires new solutions to traditional problems. Epic helps provide accurate information quickly when needed at critical times and can help patients access their own records. With the amount of data that goes along with each individual patient, it becomes too big a task for any human to keep up with consistently.

ReMedi Helps Hospitals Understand the Benefits of EHRs to both Patients and Physicians

ReMedi Health Solutions works with numerous healthcare institutions in EHR implementation, including Epic software. ReMedi is a physician-owned and driven National Healthcare IT Consulting Firm, and that means it understands the value Epic and other EHRs offer physicians and patients alike. Epic provides personalized and accurate healthcare records which greatly reduce errors made, speed up many processes, and provide immediate results to doctors and patients.

Epic’s user interface helps doctors keep track of all the details according to relevance, and allows for custom forms/orders to be made and then automated easily. Patients can utilize their own Patient Portal with MyChart, allowing them to access their own records and share them with other physicians even outside of Epic. Patients can also even receive price quotes for procedures while discussing them with their physician. Easy access to data and information improves the overall patient experience. Ease-of-use on the physician side also means it’s even easier to provide patients with more personal and quality care.

Epic Software Allows Healthcare Providers to Build Relationships with Patients

ReMedi Health Solutions and Epic software go beyond just the immediate transactional benefits of patient visits, medical billing, and electronic records. Epic provides a system of communication between patient and physician which helps build a relationship. Epic enables hospitals and healthcare institutions to create customized channels for questions, test/procedure results, and even video visits.

“Ask-a-Doc” is an Epic workflow interface that allows a hospitalist to ask a specialist simple questions without the need to schedule a separate consultation. This drastically cuts down the time before patients get the answers they need, and even allows specialists to request specific testing ahead of consultations. 

MyChart Bedside is a patient-focused user interface on a tablet provided to patients that allows them to interact with their own records and charts. They can ‘post’ questions to their doctor as well as update their current condition so doctors can better assess patients’ needs. These services and more help establish a relationship between the healthcare providers and patients. The consistency and reliability of these services and communication channels build loyalty and comfort for patients and practitioners. It means less unnecessary testing and visits for the patient, and less time waiting for the healthcare system and processes to ‘catch up’ for the physician. 

ReMedi Offers Solutions and Innovations to Make EHR Implementation Painless

EHR implementation can be difficult, but ReMedi Healthcare Solutions helps make the transition easy and seamless. For many healthcare institutions that still use traditional record systems, updating to an EHR like Epic can seem like a daunting challenge. It requires tremendous planning, coordinating, and communication to ensure everything happens without affecting workflow. Even after a successful implementation, it takes time and training to get everyone trained to effectively use the new system. ReMedi offers support in bridging the gap between technology and clinical knowledge.

ReMedi’s System Selection Advisory Services first help institutions identify which EHR will work best for them. ReMedi’s physician-minded approach to implementation means they focus on the entire process from timing the live release all the way to post-launch training and support. ReMedi EHR training is very comprehensive, using group and one-on-one sessions to ensure all end users fully understand how to use Epic to their full potential for their specific institution. Many super users will see the benefits of Epic immediately thanks to ReMedi focused training, and they will be the ones who help lead the ‘charge of change’ among other end users. 

ReMedi and Epic Together Provide Countless Innovations and Solutions to Healthcare

  • Automated medical billing, forms, and processes
  • Simpler and quicker user interfaces
  • Improved patient experience
  • Customization to fit any clinical need
  • Predictive analytics and embedded decision support tools

ReMedi helps healthcare institutions successfully and stress-free implement Epic into their systems, and then provides continuing support in fully utilizing and understanding all that Epic can offer. ReMedi Healthcare Solutions understands physicians’ needs because they are physicians.

If you’re interested in learning more about our approach to Epic optimization, email us at info@remedihs.com.

EHR Personalization: Enable End-Users and Get the Most Out of Your IT Investment

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Technological advancements in the healthcare ecosystem have enabled safer medical workflows, efficient communication, and better clinician-patient management. With the natural progression of paper records to digitization, these systems have proved to benefit clinicians, administrators, and patients. Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are a robust version of patient’s history, diagnosis, and treatment. When implemented effectively, personalized EHR healthcare technology transforms patient care, making it easier for doctors to spend more time with patients and spend less time doing paperwork. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the integral elements of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems, training, implementation standards, and the positive impact EHRs have on healthcare when personalized and implemented effectively.

The Convergence of Technology and Healthcare: Electronic Health Records

EHR systems have proven to be a game-changer, now replacing paper records on a grand scale. Here are some of the meaningful benefits of EHR Systems:

Easy access to patient data 

Patient records, history, diagnosis, and reports from other clinicians are seamlessly shared without worrying about writing out forms, filing, and time-consuming administrative work. 

Consistency and quality management 

With records accessible in real-time, there’s less chance of human error in reporting, dramatically improving workflows for clinicians. 

Secure data 

Unlike paper records, EHR systems are built for authorized users, making them less vulnerable to being lost or stolen. The cloud is a reliable source of data storing, with backups saved to ensure it’s safety. 

Patient satisfaction 

Providers can ensure a smooth administrative process to make the patient experience less uncomfortable. By being able to access information on the go, it takes logistic hinderances away from the process.

Traditional EHR Training Methods

Healthcare institutions use traditional training methods to train their staff for using EHR Systems. These include the following:

Arranging Workshops 

In these workshops, a trainer guides the team step-by-step through a proper demonstration of the system by helping the staff become familiar with the system.

Hands-on Experience 

Although workshops are beneficial for learning, demonstrations alone do not familiarize clinicians enough to become expert users. Hands-on experience is an integral part of the process. By completing tasks repeatedly over time, clinicians better understand how to use the system. 

Team-based Training Methods 

Making teams consisting of different patient care professionals is also an essential training method, as it helps the staff understand how the system works, and how their interactions will change with the implementation of this system. 

The Gap Between EHR Technology and Healthcare

Traditional methods of implementation lack a vital step in the digital shift: the personalization of EHR systems. Supporting clinicians and showing them how to maximize their workflow is best done by… well, clinicians. 

The traditional methods of EHR implementation involve training a group of clinicians together, instead of being personalized to each clinician individually. As a result, it is highly likely that the clinician is not able to understand how EHR technology can make a positive impact on their practice, and thus may not take an interest in the training at all. 

Apart from this, some clinicians may be reluctant towards this change and may not accept it wholeheartedly. Healthcare administrators must deal with this problem head-on as it can cause significant problems, especially if the clinician is solely responsible for data management.

Bridging the Gap between Healthcare and Technology

For successful EHR implementation training, organizations should focus on using an EHR consultant with a clinician background, as well as making the training exercises more personalized. ReMedi Health Solutions designs customized training solutions that incorporate real clinical workflows, evidence-based content, associated financial performance, and keep the patient experience at the center of it all.

In conjunction with formal classroom and training sessions, ReMedi physicians engage in one-on-one meetings with healthcare clinicians and conduct training tailored to the duties they carry out in a highly professional and knowledgeable manner.

A 30,000 foot view of ReMedi’s EHR Personalization process:

  1. ReMedi leads clinicians through the development of preference lists and custom order set defaults within the new EHR system. 
  2. ReMedi hosts small team-based training sessions, where clinician team members shadow EHR super users for additional user support. 
  3. ReMedi provides post-go-live service and support, where ReMedi consultants assist clinicians with issues that they might have immediately after the implementation of a new EHR System. 

The Bottom line: EHR Personalization is Key

Working with ReMedi Health Solutions results in several core improvements for healthcare providers: improved operational efficiency, better knowledge about the EHR, and, most importantly, a greater clinician acceptance towards the system. Ultimately, our mission is to work with healthcare providers to positively impact the future of patient care.

If your organization is migrating to a new EHR system or is looking to optimize its existing EHR, get in touch with ReMedi Health Solutions. We would love to have a friendly chat to see if we can make a substantial impact on the operational and financial quality of your healthcare organization.

Email us at info@remedihs.com or send us a message.

In-house vs. Outsourcing: The Benefits of a Chart Abstraction Service

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This article was originally published on LinkedIn by ReMedi’s Chief Revenue Officer, Scott Collins. 

Sometimes you have to let go. As an entrepreneur, business leader, and a father, it took the longest time in all three roles to figure out that maybe, just maybe I was holding on too tight to the daily minutia of my role. As an entrepreneur I wanted to make all of the decisions regarding the direction of the companies I founded, as a business leader I could take on my role and everyone else’s just because I needed it to get done, and as a father, well… I’m still learning.

When it comes to healthcare organizations taking on new or existing projects, I’ve experienced similar sentiments. I’ve heard phrases such as “my team can handle that” or “we do that in-house”. This is no discredit to the leaders in our industry or the faith that we have in our teams’ capabilities, but rather a nod to today’s staffing shortages, increase in employee burnout, and the rising cost of resources.

Outsourcing services is nothing new to healthcare – but it is more important today than ever. For example, let’s talk clinical data/chart abstraction. When acquiring or merging with other healthcare entities, or even transitioning to a new EHR system, healthcare organizations have the skillsets, know-how, and overall expertise within the four walls to provide chart abstraction in-house. This seems to be the smarter, more affordable, and most convenient option. But that’s not necessarily true. Enlisting the help of a clinical abstraction service can provide more complete and accurate patient charts without placing any additional burden on your clinicians.

The end result – making an acquisition or EHR transition more efficient and often at a lower cost than managing the process on your own.

Less burden on clinicians

Clinician burnout is at an all-time high. We are not just speaking of physicians, but our nurses as well. Clinicians are committed to providing the best care possible and if that means completing or correcting patient charts at home, many will do it. But is that really in the best interest of your organization, healthcare staff, or patients? Probably not. A little more personal time goes a long way for morale and better patient care.

More accurate, timely patient data

By outsourcing your chart abstraction to a clinically experienced team, providers find the information they need when they need it, allowing the best delivery for quality care. Clinicians don’t feel like they are rushing to access accurate data into the patient chart (risking certain data points like medications, allergies, etc.) and existing patients get the familiar attention they deserve. Clinicians feel valued and patients feel cared for, keeping everyone’s satisfaction levels high.

Lower costs, higher efficiency

With staffing shortages and increasing wages, keeping your chart abstraction in-house can become expensive. Clinicians are working overtime to ensure that charts are complete. With that comes higher overtime rates. Those costs add up quickly. Outsourced services typically offer a rate that is more competitive than what you’d wind up paying your clinicians.

Outsourcing chart abstraction can also improve the quality of care and increase patient volumes. When providers can focus solely on care, each visit moves faster, taking up less time and creating space for increased patient volume. It also improves care by making each visit more patient-centric resulting in higher patient retention – a topic for another day.

Final thoughts

Is it possible to manage your chart abstraction in-house? Yes. But should you? I’d argue you shouldn’t.  With the rise of clinician burnout, wage increases, and the competitive landscape of healthcare, outsourcing chart abstraction to clinical experts leads to more accurate data that’s available to providers when they need it. You can avoid burnout by not overloading your team with additional abstraction responsibilities while improving the overall efficiency of the process… and potentially save a few bucks along the way.

Scott Collins is the Chief Revenue Officer for ReMedi Health Solutions. Learn more about Chart Abstraction Services or contact Scott at s.collins@remedihs.com.

The Future of EHR: Automation, Interoperability, and Value

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Now more than ever, technology has the potential to change every aspect of our lives. Given the current health crisis, our healthcare system is evolving to meet the current crisis which will shift into lasting changes. Electronic health records (EHR) are the digital version of your health records. Using EHR efficiently has enormous potential to change the landscape of the future of healthcare.

Electronic Health Records, or EHRs, are real-time, patient-centered records that are available to anyone that is authorized to see them. Patient electronic health records (EHRs) contain a wide range of medical information, including:

  • Medical histories
  • Diagnoses
  • Medications
  • Treatment plans
  • Immunization dates
  • Allergies
  • Radiology images
  • Laboratory test results

EHRs can enable intelligent evidence-based tools to help doctors make better, informed decisions on the best treatment for patients. When used proactively, EHRs help automate clinician workflows so that work is done more efficiently and the quality of care improves.

The Future of EHR Will Shift Into a Tool For Communication Between Healthcare Professionals

There are several important reasons that EHR have the potential to change the healthcare world for the better. For starters, there is interoperability. This allows patients and providers to provide access to health records no matter where they go. EHR can be moved from one medical setting to another to help with communication and relevant medical data. This allows doctors to communicate with other doctors and those who are conducting a test, pharmacies, medical imaging facilities, emergency facilities, and even school or workplace settings. Healthcare patients can confidently visit various healthcare providers, and trust that their medical records with travel with them.

Source: https://healthit.gov

The Data Stored In Your EHR System Will Help You Automate Processes and Decision Making

Hospitals collect vast amounts of data from patients, and EHR systems provide a way to store and organize this data. The data stored in your EHR system can then be used to start the process of automating your processes throughout your healthcare office. This occurs when the hospital’s IT and healthcare workflows are synced up.

The Future of EHR Will Increase Value for All

EHR can also significantly improve the quality of care that patients receive. When a doctor has access to the most current and complete healthcare record of a patient accessible, it allows them to make better decisions in regards to their treatment. This ultimately helps to improve the care and treatment that the patient receives.

Over the long-term, EHRs have the potential to save patients money. This can only occur once the EHR, like Epic or Cerner, has been successfully implemented and optimized. Once once this happens, there can be an efficient reduction of labor, and that will reduce the cost to provide healthcare to patients.

Conclusion

Electronic health records have the potential to change the landscape of the healthcare industry. They allow doctors to communicate better which can help provide better care to patients because doctors can make a better decision based on what the record is showing. EHR can also benefit patients by lowering the cost of medical care and make it easier for patients to bring their records from one doctor to another. Finally, EHR is beneficial for the hospitals with a sound data migration strategy, because they can better utilize the large amounts of data that they collect and can start to automate their system. As the technology behind EHR systems grows, they’ll quickly become the core operating foundation of any healthcare facility.

At ReMedi Health Solutions, we believe healthcare IT projects shouldn’t cause stress for physicians and staff. 

As trained clinicians, we recognize the need to create value using technology and data solutions that help hospitals and physicians provide better care for patients in a highly sustainable manner. Our EHR solutions coupled with our empathetic approach not only cuts costs and reduces expenses, but it allows for our clinically-driven resources to make a direct impact to your medical workflows. 

If you have questions or would like to connect with our team, email us at info@remedihs.com.

7 Reasons Why Physician Personalization is the Key to EHR Success

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Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems are becoming a large part of the medical community. EHR systems offer a range of collaborative and customizable tools that help centralize patient care.

However, with all the different opportunities that EHR offers the medical community, some hospital systems and especially doctors find it hard to transition to this new, digitized solution.

Change is rarely easy, but adopting an EHR system into your practice is an advancement that can help everyone in your practice, from the staff to the patients, become more connected, organized, and efficient.

The best way to adapt to using an EHR system is to personalize it for each end-user as much as possible. At ReMedi Health Solutions, we believe that Personalization should be conducted by physicians with clinical experience in the new EHR. Now, from the Virtual Command Center, ReMedi physicians can support more doctors than ever before with their EHR Personalization needs. The virtual solution enables just ten ReMedi physicians to support up to two thousand practicing physicians with Personalization lab sessions!

Here are seven reasons why physician Personalization is key to EHR success:

1. Adoption of the New EHR

Personalization is important for a physician because it helps patients and doctors adopt new EHR systems. A 2019 study conducted by KLAS’ Arch Collaborative found that the adoption and evolution of EHR are cultivated best in an environment where physicians personalize their patients’ systems.

The EHR system or usability does factor into the adoption of new EHR. However, every EHR system is a tool that improves clinical workflow. Similarly to every tech innovation, every EHR system has different functions and interfaces.

Yet, if physicians don’t make it a genuine part of their practice, it will never reach its full capabilities.

To make an EHR system a part of your practice, ensure that every physician sees the benefits of using this powerful technology. Then, doctors need to use it and understand its functionality to become comfortable with it.

Once doctors and staff become genuinely comfortable and excited about the technology’s capabilities, patients will follow suit.

2. Specialty-Specific Workflows

Everyone in the medical industry has an important job to do. Yet, every position in the medical field has a specialty-specific workflow. A doctor and a nurse have two different workflows, schedules, and duties. When you evaluate the means by which surgeons versus anesthesiologists versus primary care physicians see their patients, you realize that each one is tangibly different and will completely use the EHR in a unique way. Therefore, any EHR system you use must adhere to each staff member’s specialty-specific workflow. 

The best way to do that is to personalize the system with someone with an understanding of each specialty. This opportunity is a wonderful way to get your staff involved and invested in learning the system. When people understand that you are helping make the system great for their use, they are more inclined to learn the design and use the system to tailor it to their needs.

3. MD to MD (Peer to Peer)

A 2019 survey indicated that poor EHR training largely impacted the system’s personalization and usability. This survey solidifies the importance of learning from a clinician with background and end-user experience with each EHR system. At ReMedi, our approach to peer to peer training helps our physicians explain and personalize the EHR focusing on the “why” we do things in a specific way with the new system. Most EHR trainers simply show you “how” the EHR works — leaving room for uncertainty, error, and inefficiency. One step further, we share why we document things in a certain way, why we utilize the InBasket/Message Center in the appropriate way. It’s hard for a non-physician to teach a physician why things should be done a certain way, so we have found the MD to MD training to be the most beneficial of all during EHR implementations. 

A clinician with such experience can offer real-world data, best practices, and shortcuts that reduce clicks, making the process much easier. Plus, in this environment, trainees can have all their questions answered for their specific system.

Physician trainee confidence levels grow exponentially when trainees see that another clinician has learned and found success with an EHR system.

At the end of the day, an MD is more inclined to listen to and learn from another MD. Especially when the training EHR physician is outside of their institution, there is little bias involved, and the approach is strictly based on strategy, efficiency and ease of use. The doctor now has a peer who is assuring them that they can understand the EHR system and it will be beneficial to their productivity and patient care practice.

4. Preferences, Favorites, and Customization

A system can only passively pick up on so many preferences. So, the more an individual personalizes a system to fit their needs, the better it performs. However, while professionals personalize their desks, phones, mousepads, and other office supplies, 66% of professionals surveyed by KLAS had little to no personalization added to their EHR system.

The personalization of your EHR system is an integral part of the experience. If you don’t personalize the experience, you disregard a large portion of the system’s overall capabilities.

With most EHR systems, you can input note templates and favorite data unique to the user. Therefore, as the doctor gets accustomed to the EHR, the system tailors itself to optimal customization and productivity.

Our Personalization team at ReMedi has found that if the physician is taught how to correctly use the EHR within the first weeks of the implementation, every hour they spend personalizing and learning the system results in a saved working hour every week from then on.

5. Ease of Use / Functionality

The overall EHR systems design responds well to customization. The system’s best informational asset is the people who are using the system. The more they can offer the system in terms of personalization and customization, the better it can provide ease of use and optimal functionality.

The design intention is what makes it beneficial to have peers teaching peers during the initial setup. However, cultivating ease of use and functionality extends to the willingness of co-workers to train new hires.

Every medical office has specific jargon, ways of filing, and customization of unique operations. Therefore, when a person is new to the practice, even though they will have the ability to customize their own EHR systems workspace, a peer must explain how to use the system.

Similarly to the overall teaching experience, when a peer teaches a peer about the practice’s system, they can share their knowledge and offer tips to make the transition easier.

This collaboration improves usability and functionality overall because everyone is on the same page and can help anyone with a range of aspects throughout the system.

6. Better Patient Care

Ultimately, every medical technological advancement gets implemented to help physicians improve patient care. The implementation of EHR systems is no different.

Personalizing your EHR workspace makes it easy to find everything from patient information to form templates. You have control over the look, organization, and information you have close at hand.

When physicians apply the prior personalization points to their practice, each doctor can focus their full attention on the patient, using this technology as the dynamic tool it is designed to be.

7. Physician Satisfaction

Physician satisfaction occurs when the doctors can navigate the EHR confidently. The confidence they gain while continuously using and learning the EHR system’s capabilities allows physicians to serve more patients promptly, with a better focus on outcomes. Physician burnout goes away when the physician can finish their work inside of their working hours, and head home for some ‘pajama time’ with their loved ones. 

Ultimately, EHR systems are a powerful tool that can help physicians garner satisfaction in their work by organizing the medical process. However, that tool is only as useful as the extent it gets implemented. So, to reach the heights and get the best experience any EHR system can provide, physician Personalization is vital.

Conclusion

At ReMedi, we’re focused on serving physicians in the clinical environment. To learn more about how ReMedi supports its hospital partners with physician Personalization, send us an email at info@remedihs.com.